Scottish Executive

NHS Hospitals

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the new statistics from the Registrar General for Scotland showing a rise in the birth rate in all but one quarter since 2002 will have any impact on the proposed closure of the Queen Mother’s Hospital.

Mr Andy Kerr: Statistics from the Registrar General for Scotland are a factor which NHS planners must take into account in developing proposals for NHS service configuration. In the case of the Queen Mother’s Hospital, I refer the member to the announcement made by Malcolm Chisholm in Parliament on 30 September 2004.

NHS Waiting Times

Campbell Martin (West of Scotland) (Ind): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is acceptable that a patient referred for treatment at the maxillofacial clinic at Crosshouse Hospital has an average waiting period of 18 months before being seen; what the reasons are for such a waiting time; what specific actions are being taken to reduce this waiting time; what length of time is acceptable for a patient to wait for such treatment, and when it expects such a waiting time to be achieved at Crosshouse Hospital.

Mr Andy Kerr: I believe 18 months is an unacceptable length of time for a patient to wait for a routine out-patient appointment. That is why the Executive has set the national target to reduce the waiting time for all first out-patient appointments with a consultant to a maximum of 26 weeks by December 2005. All NHS boards must achieve this target.

  I understand that NHS Ayrshire and Arran will be appointing an additional clinician to the maxillofacial service in the near future. They also plan to introduce the patient focussed booking system to maxillofacial clinics. This new arrangement involves patients agreeing a mutually convenient appointment time with the hospital and aims to reduce the number of clinic spaces which are wasted due to patients failing to attend. NHS Ayrshire and Arran anticipates that both of these initiatives will result in a significant reduction in waiting times for their maxillofacial clinics.

Racism

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the recommendations were of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service Inspectorate's review of the prosecution of racial crime.

Colin Boyd QC: The Inspectorate of Prosecution is due to submit its report on race issues to me during November 2004. It is intended that this and all subsequent reports from the Inspectorate will be published.

Regional Selective Assistance

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of underspend in regional selective assistance during the current financial year.

Allan Wilson: Our current expectation is that spend on regional selective assistance (RSA) for the current financial year will be broadly in line with the budget of £40.2 million. However, RSA is a demand led scheme, under which instalments are only released as firms make progress in implementing grant assisted projects. It is not therefore possible to make precise forecasts of aggregate annual expenditure under the scheme.

Renewable Energy

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many meetings of Her Majesty’s Government’s Transmission Issues Working Group have been attended by Executive ministers, expressed also as a percentage of all such meetings; whether it will give details of the specific objectives ministers are pursuing at this working group, and what progress has been made.

Allan Wilson: The Transmission Issues Working Group comprises officials from the Department for Trade and Industry and from the devolved administrations, the electricity transmission companies and the regulator, Ofgem. Its purpose is to monitor the progress of implementation of the additional infrastructure required in order to meet the needs of the Government’s renewables targets. Executive officials have attended all meetings of the group.

Rural Development

Alex Fergusson (Galloway and Upper Nithsdale) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many rural ownership grants were awarded in 2003-04 in each local authority area.

Malcolm Chisholm: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

  The number of rural home ownership grants (RHOG) that were awarded in each local authority in 2003-04 is as follows.

  Number of RHOG Approvals by Unitary Authority (2003-04)

  

Unitary Authority
2003-04


Aberdeenshire
1


Argyll and Bute
10


Highland
36


Orkney
28


Perth and Kinross
1


Scottish Borders
3


Shetland
1


Western Isles
3

Voluntary Sector

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to address the issue of recruitment and retention of social care staff in the voluntary sector.

Euan Robson: The Care in Scotland campaign, launched in 2002, continues to address the issue of recruitment and retention in all sectors of social care, public, private and voluntary. The latest drive in January and February involved significant press and radio advertising and enhancement of the campaign website. These advertising bursts are very effective. Career calls to the Scottish Social Service Council (SSSC) between 5 January and 31 March numbered 2,760; 1,500 of which were directly attributable to the campaign. During the same period, SSSC received 522 e-mail career enquiries and monthly downloads of career packs from their website rose from 750 in December-January to 5,490 in February-March. Hits on the campaign website in February alone were 888,000 from 22,985 visits.

  In 2004-05, the campaign will focus mainly on the recruitment of social carers. The TV, press and radio campaign will roll out on a regional basis from mid-November 2004 to mid March 2005 and will direct attention towards the nine regional open days being organised by the Scottish Social Services Council to provide information on local training and employment opportunities in the sector. Open days will take place in: Perth, Dundee, Irvine, Falkirk, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Galashiels, Aberdeen and Inverness. The November 2004 - March 2005 phase of the campaign will be of significant help to the independent (voluntary and private) sector, as the SSSC is taking particular care to ensure the interests of this part of the sector are highlighted. The independent sector is well represented in the planning of the campaign and continues to assist the Executive’s efforts through significant representation on the National Workforce Group and its three sub-groups.Many of the Executive’s initiatives are also helping the independent sector. These include the new Framework for Social Work Education; a new four-year honours degree-level qualification; an Incentive scheme for some newly qualified social workers worth £9,000 to each recipient (one-tenth of funds have been reserved for the independent sector); commitment to fund the Community Care Providers Scotland’s Workforce Unit to support recruitment and retention planning for the independent sector, and a Leading to Deliver initiative investing in a postgraduate certificate in social services leadership for local authority and independent sector social work managers. Significant financial support is also being provided through training grants under Section 9 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 and via a Voluntary Sector Development Fund. Section 9 funding was £1.006 million in 2003-04 increasing to £1.5 million in 2004-05. The Voluntary Sector Development Fund (VSDF) provided £1 million in 2003-04, to be repeated in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

  The Executive is helping significantly in all care sectors and we have confirmed on a number of occasions our commitment to continuing support. That includes the longer term workforce planning required. We recognise the important contribution of the independent sector and will continue to consider ways in which it can be supported.